Sedan, breakthrough at. In 1940 the French High Command considered that the Ardennes was impassable for German armour. However, on May 12 Guderian’s XIX Panzer Corps captured Sedan, having passed through the forest in two days. The next day they forced crossings of the River Meuse and, having secured their bridgehead, broke through the flimsy French defences and advanced rapidly towards the Channel coast.
Seeckt, Gen Hans von (1866
1936). Ger. After service on the Western Front in 1914-15, appointed cos to von Mackensen’s Eleventh Army in Galicia. Played a major role in summer offensive of 1915 and the drive into the Balkans. Postwar, his primary concern was revival of the German Army. Appointed c-in-c Reichswehr, he ensured that his small command was prepared for expansion, even arranging training facilities in the Soviet Union. A less than enthusiastic supporter of the Weimar Republic, he nevertheless used the army to restrain both right - and left-wing extremists. In October 1926, his autocratic behaviour resulted in dismissal. In 1934-35, military adviser to Chiang Kai-shek. MS.
Self-propelled guns. Artillery pieces mounted on tracked chassis (e. g. M109, Abbot), capable of good cross-cuuniry performance in support of mobile operations.
Senger und Etterlin, Lt Gen Fri-dolin von (1891-1971). Ger. Liaison Officer, Guzzoni’s Sixth Army, Sicilian campaign; Commander of Corsica garrison, September 7 1943 until evacuated, October 3; Commander XIV Panzer Corps, Italian campaign.
Sense and Destroy Armour (SADARM). US sub-munition designed to be scattered over tanks and to home on them using mil-limetric wavelength radar. Sometimes known as “Skeets”, they flutter down searching for targets, and, if they find one, fire a selfforging fragment at its lightly protected upper surfaces. If they do not immediately find a target, they can operate as effective mines. They can be dispensed by 155mm or 8in shells or mlrs rockets.
Seoul, Battle of (1950). When the NKPA began the Korean War on June 25 1950, the main thrust was directed towards Seoul, the rok capital. It consisted of two infantry divisions supported by an armoured brigade. A rok counterattack on June 26 failed and by evening the nkpa had taken Ui-jongbu, a key position on the road to the capital. The following day ROK units, lacking an adequate defence against tanks, began to disintegrate and the nkpa reached the outskirts of Seoul. A plan to hold the Han river line, south of Seoul, failed when engineer units panicked and blew the bridges prematurely in the early hours of June 28, forcing the rok army to abandon much of its equipment. Later that day, Seoul fell. CM.
Serbian campaign (1914-15). Austria-Hungary declared war on Serbia, July 28 1914. The Austrian cos, Conrad von Hotzendorf, unwisely decided on a two-front offensive: against Russia in Galicia, to the north; and against Serbia to the south. Early in August, Austrian Second Army advanced across the Save river, on Serbia’s northern border, while Austrian Fifth and Sixth Armies struck from Bosnia, in the west, across the Drina and Jadar rivers. The Austrian c-in-c, Gen Oskar Potiorek, deploying some 200,000 men in all, was opposed by three Serbian armies (about 190,000 men) under Marshal Putnik. Although better-equipped, the hastily-mobilized Austrian troops were inferior in both training and morale to the Serbian veterans of the Balkan Wars.
Keeping his forces concentrated, Putnik manouevred skilfully to defeat the independently-operating Austrian armies, holding Second Army in the north, while dividing Sixth and Fifth Armies, and severely mauling the latter, in a fierce counterattack (Battle of the Jadar river, August 16-21). Having lost some 40,000 men, Potiorek fell back across the Drina. Putnik, however, could not sustain a counteroffensive into Bosnia and, when Potiorek again attacked from the north and west on September 7, failed, after ten days’ savage fighting (Battle of the Drina river, September 8-17) to eradicate the Austrian bridgeheads. With ammunition running low, Putnik gradually retreated southeastwards, withdrawing troops from Belgrade (occupied by the Austrians on December 2) and concentrating his armies in the central highlands around Mount Rudnik, where he was resupplied by the Allies via Salonika. Potiorek’s advance from the north and west, October-November, overstretched the Austrian supply lines, and on December 3-9, at the Rudnik Ridges and the Kolubara river, a Serbian counter attack shattered Potiorek’s armies, recapturing Belgrade (December 15) and driving the Austrians from Serbia. The campaign cost Potiorek some
227,000 casualties; Serbian losses were also great.
In September 1915, following Bulgaria’s alliance with the Central Powers, Serbia faced invasion from north, west and east, with neutral Greece (resenting territory lost in the Balkan Wars) a potential danger to the south. On October 6, under the direction of Field Marshal August von Mackensen, German (Gen von Gallwitz) and Austrian (Gen Kovess von Koves-shaza) armies swept across Serbia’s northern border, taking Belgrade (October 9), while two Bulgarian armies struck from the east, taking Vranje (October 19) and driving back the Serbs after a prolonged struggle for Veles (October 21-29). The Serbian stronghold of Mitrovitza fell to Kovess on November 23, while on the same day Gallwitz linked up with the Bulgarians at Pristina.
The Bulgarian offensive had blocked attempts to aid Putnik by the Anglo-French expeditionary force at Salonika {see Salonika campaign): outnumbered nearly two-to-one and threatened with envelopment, Putnik withdrew his remaining forces, fighting a series of heroic rearguard actions, to the southwest. After a harrowing winter trek through the mountains of Montenegro (occupied by Austria, January 1916) and Albania, the Serbian survivors (some 100,000 Serbs out of about 180,000 engaged in the campaign became casualties) reached the Adriatic coast, whence they were evacuated by the Allies to Corfu. Re-equipped there, a 118,000-strong Serbian army returned to join the Allies at Salonika, July 1916. RO’N.
World History
